For the vast majority of the night, this was a thoroughly unwatchable game. Early on the Panthers dominated a clearly tired Oilers team, and then the game descended into trench warfare, with minimal chances for either side. Ryan Jones capitalized on one break; Jason Garrison responded for the Panthers, and that was just about it for the bulk of regulation.

Things picked up late in the third, and that continued into a spectacular overtime that saw the teams swap chances at both ends. Jose Theodore and Devan Dubnyk were both excellent, an excellence that carried over to the shootout, where seven of eight shooters were stop. Finally, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored on a lovely set of moves to give the Oilers the win.

#5 Ladislav Smid, 7. Five blocked shots, 24:25 time on ice, and as defensively solid as they come – Ladislav Smid had quite a good game. He handled a 3-on-1 as well as he could have, made two hits and had more than four minutes of ice-time on the penalty kill.

#6 Ryan Whitney, 5. Whitney alternated good and bad play – the brain is clearly still there, as he is composed under pressure and a capable puck mover, but the lack of foot speed cost him at times as it led to shots against.

#10 Shawn Horcoff, 6. Horcoff left the game early with a sore back, playing just 11 shifts overall. Before leaving the game he had a strong if low-event first period, including some excellent work on the power play.

#14 Jordan Eberle, 5. One superb sequence late in the game, where Eberle moved through the Panthers’ defense seemingly at will probably comes to mind immediately, as does his part in the Oilers’ lone regulation goal, but he was also bumped off the puck repeatedly.

#15 Nick Schultz, 6. Made some great plays and some lousy plays; in one shift misplaying a Panthers attacker leading to a great opportunity against, and then making an excellent play in his own end to neutralize another chance. On the whole, there was more good than bad.

#16 Darcy Hordichuk, incomplete. He rarely plays enough to make a difference one way or the other.

#20 Eric Belanger, 7. Tied for the team lead with three shots, played like a demon defensively and got a ton of work in his own zone. It really feels like Belanger has come around late in the year; regardless, he was one of the Oilers’ better players tonight. A bad night in the faceoff circle was the only real negative.

#23 Linus Omark, 3. One of my favourites got caught puck-watching on the Panthers’ lone goal (given the Oilers’ collapse to the other side of the ice, his decision to cut in was understandable but incorrect) and took two penalties on top of it. He really didn’t help himself against Florida.

#24 Theo Peckham, 5. Looked a little hesitant in his own zone, slow to respond to attacking forwards, but picked things up as the night went on.

#28 Ryan Jones, 6. Scored the first goal of the game, converting on a nice 3-on-1 play with Eberle and Nugent-Hopkins.

#40 Devan Dubnyk, 8. Stopped 26 of 27 shots in regulation (though the single goal against wasn’t especially good) and then was brilliant in the shootout, alternating solid positional play and a brilliant poke-check on the dangerous Wojtek Wolski. The best Oiler against Florida.

#44 Corey Potter, 4. Looked better in brief stints with Whitney and Petry than he did with Peckham. He doesn’t have the puck-moving game to be matched with a pure defensive partner and it shows.

#55 Ben Eager, 6. I thought eager looked good when he played but he didn’t get a lot of ice-time as Renney moved to three lines late.

#56 Teemu Hartikainen, 4. A welcome physical presence who finished a nasty hit late in the game, Hartikainen unfortunately ended up looking confused a few times for bad reasons – he hopped off the bench directly on top of the puck, earning a too many men penalty, and seemed flustered when put in offensive situations. Got lots of offensive zone ice time, but struggled more than he has the last while.

#58 Jeff Petry, 7. A physical presence on the penalty kill, hammering opponents along the boards early, Petry kept it up all night, getting credited with five hits at the end of the game. He still makes mistakes but he’s more capable of recovery than any other player on the blue line and his speed and passing are major pluses.

#83 Ales Hemsky, 5. Showed his defensive side early, playing well positionally in his own end and stripping a Panthers’ attacker of the puck to get play moving in the other direction, and had some decent moments offensively but also got knocked off the puck a little too easy and had an up-and-down game, less brilliant than his recent efforts.

#89 Sam Gagner, 6. Gagner was fine – nearly scoring on a puck that Jose Theodore bobbled – and he was excellent in the faceoff circle, but it wasn’t a brilliant game for him.

#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 6. Scored the shootout winner and was one of the few producers offensively for the team, but his line got outshot badly and pinned in their own end a little too often. Still, his offensive brilliance was in short supply on a pop-gun Oilers attack against Florida.

#94 Ryan Smyth, 6. Drew a penalty in the first with some determined work on the cycle, and handled some tough minutes well; unfortunately he ended up playing more than 20:00 in the second half of back-to-back games and it showed late in the game.

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